Battech : All the things that could, would
by Circle of Phoenix
Summary: Go wrong. Everything that can, will inevitably go wrong. Side story and chapter bits from Tinkering with the Battech that were still a good idea, but didn't actually fit. Snippets are adoptable, just let me know.
1. Dedicated Into Madness

The Joker's attack had given Bruce a kernel of an idea and it all depended on a small chance given to him by the Justice League. It was easy to rewrite the algorithm of the virus that had invaded Gotham. The League was dependent on his knowledge for continued experiments in advancing technology and using the parameters he waited until Terry suggested they test it on the Car before actually making such a sacrifice.

He had waited until the new Batman was distracted before setting it up. He was quite aware he was throwing this small family into the unknown however if he could save them then so be it. They didn't need to take the same sacrifices he and his family had. They didn't have to take those risks and he had seen what would happen to Terry first hand.

It was insane and would probably land with him in some kind of cell within Arkham... if he was ever discovered. His heart was weaker and he was slowly dying. Gotham was already promised the direct attentions of the League if anything happened to him or Terry.

It was a small insurance that he had drawn from Clark at the time he began working from the shadows with them again. Clark suspected that he was going to do something. There was no way he could allow this child to take on the responsibilities of the Batman with his family in the dark. So, he wrote the letters. He reprogrammed the boom tube with technology only the senior members of the League had ever known existed and he packed away all the things he knew Terry was going to need. He then sent men to take the McGinnis family from their home while Terry was out patrolling. He waited until his most junior partner came back to the cave before sending him out to test the Car's new schematics, never knowing he carried his own family in the undercarriage of the very car that would never return home. How could it?

Bruce Wayne had sacrificed the materials that made the car what it was to safely carry away what he considered his final duty. To protect his unknowing family from his legacy.

That's what Batman did, right, protect the innocent no matter the cost to himself?

Bruce hadn't been aware he'd been talking aloud to himself as Dick and Barbara watched him from behind a secret mirror. Oblivious as Bruce was to the rest of the world, neither of the Batman's former partners knew just what to make of his descent into... this.

Dementia. When Bruce's doctors had contacted him with the news he'd been horrified at what it meant. The onset had been subtle enough that they hadn't caught until the man had done something he normally wouldn't have considered doing. He'd kidnapped a family and sent them into the multiverse to protect them from Batman, the original Dark Knight. According to the whispers and mumbled statements under his breath, Bruce knew some of what was happening around him.


	2. The Crime That Wasn't

"I have never in all of my life heard such a farce. Why would anyone want to steal hyenas?" Terry growled at Bruce an hour later as the two of them perched off the narrow strip of white washed brick that dominated the GCPD. Pulling his finger tips away from the window, he gave Bruce a determined expression. "Really, I mean, hyenas?"

"I hardly count the Joker as being sane. He probably has a reason for what he's doing." Batman responded. The red symbol on the teenager's chest had brought on an entirely new level of stubborn refusal. The kid had outwitted Alfred by pulling a spare uniform from the car. Damage to the suit would be hard to fix but the kid claimed he had an idea or two they could implement with 'existing technology' to keep it in usable shape.

"Wonder if I should mention the girlfriend…" Terry mused aloud.

The Dark Knight tightened his shoulders to prevent a horrified shudder. " That's not funny."

Terry grinned in the dark of the Gotham night. So using the truth to poke at the first Batman was a bit of fun…. "Neither were their granddaughters."

"Really, not funny." Robin echoed, shuddering beneath the yellow fabric of his cape. Just picturing a pair of Joker Juniors was making the Boy Wonder nauseated. "Stop teasing and let's go find 'em."

In the same way that they had arrived, Robin took his motorcycle and the two bats dropped into the car the moment they left the side of the building. Bruce waited as Terry gave him the name of the location they were headed to. "The hyenas were located at the zoo as part of an explorable culture project. Really, they were just there for people to see them."


	3. Three Worlds and No Destiny Waiting

The Killing Joke (Tim Drake, Max Gibson, Oracle - Barbara Gordon)

Shifting the phone to her left ear, Max listened to the soft beeps as the line attempted to jump dimensions and connect to another Earth's Batgirl. The young woman had been highly suspicious, no less than Oracle had been when they'd originally come through some months ago. Max had to prove herself to the older woman before she'd even been allowed to establish herself in the Clocktower base. Since then, Tim Drake had left her here to go further into the established multiverse to try and find some more help.

The culprit to Terry's inexplicable bad luck of falling into situations he couldn't help was at fault, she felt. The Universe as a whole had tried to correct itself by doing _something_ Tim had explained. Even he couldn't understand entirely why he was wandering around trying to fix things that had nothing to do with him. The only thing Tim had been able to point out was the space between dimensions created by the Flash known as Flashpoint to all of his dimensions heroes.

 _Drake declared Flashpoint the culprit for the breaches_. Max thought, _So why is it Terry that was affected? What if it's Tim Drake causing the fluctuations between dimensions, hopping around like he is? Though Terry could be meant to fall into other worlds, so if that's the case, should we really be trying to find him? Terry's always getting into trouble. He even became Batman after his father's death was brought to light and he kept going. For everyone, including himself._

(Break)

Flashpoint (Barbara Gordon Sr. and Thomas Wayne)

The woman had a gun pressed to his head, the muzzle of the weapon pressed against his skin as if he had committed some kind of sin. Her eyes reminded him of steel, unwavering, unflinching… as if she understood his mission.

"Batman." she said harshly, "That woman… why?"

Thomas slowly turned his head to look at the old woman. She was dressed in a trench coat and the muzzle of her gun dropped away to reveal it's barrel free appearance. The short crop of her hair and the round tilt of her glasses reminded the cowled man of Gordon. "You have the advantage." he declared, "Though your appearance reminds me of someone else that once came to pay me a visit. Why are you here?"

"Why did you kill that woman?" Barbara Gordon insisted.

"She's not dead. The bullet was simply a way to deliver a powerful narcotic that will temporarily place her in a coma while the hospital undoes the Joker's poisons."

(Break)

Son of Batman (Damian, Bruce, Alfred, Mary McGinnis, and Matt McGinnis)

Pressing two fingers to the throat of the unconscious older woman, Damian looked back over his shoulder at the complete destruction that had once been the Batcomputer. The strange data device he'd pulled from the woman's fingers as she'd tried to explain the situation turned over in his fingers as he examined it. He'd brushed off her panicked explanations during his assault, but the name 'Matt' still struck a chord in the child's throat. A soft sniffle from the debris of the computer got Damian looking straight at the computer again. The soft shift of fabric snagging on metal had the young boy moving again, only this time he earned a scream from the second intruder.

Letting out a breath, Damien leaned casually on a piece of shrapnel as his trained eyes found the body shape of another child in the ruins. Waving his hand around, he glanced towards the door where his father and the butler were beginning to emerge. "You can come out now. No one's going to hurt you," he stated before his brow lifted slightly. "Why'd an intruder bring an untrained kid with them is beyond me…."


End file.
